St. Louis Justice Center director details new programs even as staffing and medical costs strain budget

Acting Commissioner Doug Burris told the Board of Aldermen’s Budget and Public Employees Committee on May 21 that the St. Louis Justice Center (CJC) is increasing in-jail education and treatment programs while grappling with persistent staffing shortages and a rising medical contract.

Burris said the facility at 200 South Tucker holds about 750 detainees, an increase of roughly 40 percent over four years, and that many detainees are awaiting trial rather than being convicted. He highlighted new and expanded programs — a GED partnership with St. Louis Public Schools; an opiate intervention program led by the Rev. Burton Barr; an employment-preparation program run by SLATE (Prison to Prosperity); a SafeServe food-handling certification; a veterans program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; and planned opioid addiction treatment with Gateway Foundation — as central to reducing recidivism and helping residents reenter the community.

Why it matters: the department presented a larger budget request while saying its ability to operate programming and basic staff supports is constrained by unfilled positions, forced overtime and higher medical costs.

Burris gave specific program and operational details that committee members pressed him to clarify. He said two programs began in January and that unlocked education “labs” (an online learning program used in several states) will make the CJC the first jail — as opposed to a prison — in the nation to host that product. He also described a forthcoming mental-health restoration program run by the Missouri Department of Health that, per Burris’s presentation, would bring state-paid staff into the jail; the state program would reimburse the jail $90 per day for each person receiving those services, he said.

Operational pressures: Burris reported that the division proposed a total budget request of $31,883,738 for the coming year. He said nearly the entire increase over the prior year was due to medical costs: the inmate medical contract rose from $8,500,000 to $11,000,000, an increase Burris described as ‘‘about $2.5 million.’’ The department is also trimming proposed headcount in its request from 150 positions to 133 because it could not recruit enough staff. Burris told the committee that training and professional-service lines were cut: one training line fell from $30,000 to $10,000 and a professional-services request of $765,000 was approved at $0 in the proposal, which Burris said undercuts planned staff supports such as offering meals to correctional officers to improve retention.

Recruitment and safety proposals: to address vacancies and forced overtime, Burris said the department intends to contract with a national recruitment firm, the Walls Group, which he said can deliver mass candidate screening. He also described a proposed “amnesty box” in intake — an idea borrowed from St. Charles County Jail — to reduce contraband entering the facility.

Population and clinical needs: Burris said about one in four detainees has a serious psychiatric diagnosis and is on medication; one in eight is charged with murder; and one in 12 has been at the facility for more than two years, with at least one person detained more than five years. He noted the facility served approximately 18,000 meals last week and that phone-call costs for detainees were reduced after a change in law from 23¢ per minute to 7¢ per minute.

Budget follow-up: committee members questioned the origin of a $3 million contract increase that predated Burris’s tenure; Burris said the increase was the result of negotiations and a contract signed before he arrived and he could not fully explain prior steps at the hearing. Fiscal staff from the Department of Corrections’ finance team — Mignon Frazier Faluque, fiscal operations support manager — told the committee the department borrowed $1 million from the Department of Health this fiscal year to cover updated medical-contract payments and that next year’s budget should not require borrowing for medical services.

What the committee asked for: members pressed Burris for the most critical unmet needs; he identified staffing as the single highest priority, followed by competitive retention measures. He also asked the committee to consider whether the requested professional-services funding could be restored to support staff meals and retention incentives.

The committee did not take a vote on the corrections budget at the hearing; the presentation was part of the committee’s line-by-line review of departmental requests. The chair invited the corrections team to respond to follow-up questions by email.